Latest news with #TradesUnionCongress
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Disabled staff face 'pervasive' abuse as poll shows offensive jokes and bullying
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said disabled people are facing 'pervasive' mistreatment at work, including being the butt of offensive jokes and subjected to intrusive questioning Nearly four in ten (39%) disabled workers have experienced bullying, discrimination and harassment at work, grim polling shows today(TUE). The Trades Union Congress (TUC) warned disabled people are facing 'pervasive' mistreatment at work. This includes being the butt of offensive jokes or 'banter' and being subjected to intrusive questioning about their disability. Of those who had faced mistreatment at work, more than one in ten (15%) left their job and employer altogether. Another three in ten (28%) said that it made them want to leave their job but they were unable to due to financial or other reasons. Some 42% said the most recent incident had a negative impact on their mental health, while one in five (20%) had to take time off. According to the poll, commissioned by the TUC, some 15% of those who have been mistreated faced intrusive or offensive questioning about their disability. Some 14% have been made to feel uncomfortable at work due to their disability, including through stereotypes or assumptions about their disability, or had seen or heard offensive jokes or "banter" about disabled people. And 12% said that they had experienced bullying, including sustained patterns of intimidating or abusive behaviour, clearly linked to their disability. The TUC said Labour's Employment Rights Bill will introduce key protections for disabled workers to help tackle this 'shockingly high' mistreatment. The legislation, currently passing through the House of Lords, includes a clause requiring employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment of staff by third parties, such as customers and patients. Recent TUC polling shows that protecting workers from harassment is one of the most popular policies in the Bill – with almost eight in ten UK voters (78%) supporting it. The TUC has criticised the Tories and Reform UK, who it said 'have both mischaracterised the government's plans to protect workers from third-party harassment as an end to pub banter'. TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: 'No one should face bullying, harassment or discrimination at work. But the number of disabled workers reporting that this is their everyday experience is shockingly high. It's time to stamp out this pervasive mistreatment. Disabled workers deserve dignity and respect at work like every other worker does.' ::: Opinium surveyed 1,000 disabled workers online between January 22 and February 4.
Irish Examiner
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Beginner's pluck: Dublin-born writer Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin
An intense child, Niamh always loved writing. 'I scribbled lines before I could write,' she says, 'and at eight, I wrote poems and performed them at my parent's parties, but I lost confidence in my late teens.' Graduating in 2011, Niamh moved to London and worked for non-profit organisations, with social justice publications, with charities and unions on media relations, doing story telling for social change. She then studied politics at SOAS before working for a political blog and doing some freelance journalism. 'Then I worked for the Trades Union Congress and then switched to working freelance.' I like having a mix of different projects. All this time Niamh had yearned to write fiction, but there was never time. 'You have to make space. The pandemic focused me. 'I started writing the novel in January 2021 and sold it in the summer of 2023.' Meanwhile, in 2022, she won the PFD Queer Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize Discoveries Award, (for the first 10,000 words of a novel). Ordinary Saints was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club. Who is Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin? Date/ place of birth: 1989/ Dublin. Education: Castleknock Community College; Trinity College Dublin, English with Classical Civilisation. SOAS, (School of Oriental and African Studies,) Politics. Home: Edinburgh, since 2020. Family: 'I have an incredible group of friends, which includes my sisters, Aoife and Dearbhaile.' The day job: Freelance in non-profit communications. In another life: 'I might have gone into the law and become a barrister.' Favourite writers: Virginia Woolf; Toni Morrison; Dorris Lessing; John MacGahern; Ruth Ozeki; Torrey Peters. Second book: 'It's in the early stages.' Top tip: 'I loved the George Saunders quote: 'Focus on the sentence.'' Website: Instagram: @niamhsquared The debut Ordinary Saints Manilla Press, €15.99 Jay has escaped her devout Irish family and lives in London with her girlfriend. But when she learns that Ferdia, the brother she adored — a priest who died young after a fatal accident — is being considered as a Catholic Saint, she's forced to confront her childhood and her family. Will she come to terms with the past? The verdict: This debut is pretty perfect. It's informative, original, heartfelt, very real, and stunningly written. The characters linger in your mind.
Telegraph
15-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The minimum wage was meant to help workers. It's hurting them
Spring is usually a busy period at the Ben Reid Garden Centre on the outskirts of Aberdeen. But this year it has come with a chill for the 250-year-old family business. 'Passion, plants and people – it is the three Ps that make our business,' says boss Simon Fraser. 'We're really struggling with one element of the 'people' bit: with the cost of it.' Fraser is referring to the rise in the National Living Wage, the minimum legal wage for those aged 21 and over, which leapt by 6.7pc to £12.21 per hour on April 1 – just as companies were hit by a £25bn tax raid through higher employer National Insurance (NI) contributions. The UK now has one of the highest minimum wages in the world. It is a challenge for business owners such as Fraser, whose other bills are rising too. Reluctantly, he's had to put several of his staff on short-term contracts, cut hours from five days a week to four during the quieter winter months and laid off the shop's delivery driver. 'We're stopping developing our business because it's getting too expensive to pay people to do that,' he says. Cost burdens have become so high that 'we feel like with the payroll of six people, we're employing a seventh who doesn't exist', he adds. It's a struggle that will be familiar to many business-owners across Britain who are running just to stand still in the face of surging cost pressures. The minimum wage has long been lauded as the UK's most successful intervention for low-paid workers since its introduction in 1999, persistently proving critics who warned of job losses wrong. But the twin blows of surging employment taxes and rising wages in a fragile economy have prompted experts to warn that job losses may finally come to pass this year. Even Trades Union Congress boss Paul Novak recently conceded that there was a risk of underemployment.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rayner ‘must not cave in to Farage over banter crackdown'
Angela Rayner must not cave in to critics such as Nigel Farage over her so-called pub banter crackdown, a union chief has said. Paul Nowak, the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has urged the Deputy Prime Minister to stand firm in her bid to protect workers from third-party harassment, which forms a key part of her Employment Rights Bill. That is despite critics arguing that it will encourage people to 'sue for hurt feelings'. Mr Nowak argued that critics such as Mr Farage, who have attacked Ms Rayner's workers' rights reforms, are just protecting 'their right to be offensive'. While calling on pub landlords to back the Bill, the TUC boss argued that the third-party harassment clause will not mean monitoring conversations. He said: 'I love going to the pub as much as anyone but I don't think that the thought police are going to descend on Britain's pubs.' His comments come after the Government was warned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that proposals forcing employers to protect staff from 'third parties' could apply to 'overheard conversations' among pubgoers. The protections are set to be introduced under Ms Rayner's Employment Rights Bill, which is a keystone of Labour's so-called New Deal for Working People. Concerns over the Bill were also raised in the House of Lords during a second reading last month. Lord Young told peers that he was worried it would 'accelerate the erasure of the good old British pub', while Lord Strathcarron called it an 'Alice in Wonderland' clause that would 'satisfy the whims of the ever-changing, latest version of group think'. Mr Farage has previously raised similar fears by claiming that 'every pub is a parliament'. He said: 'It is where we discuss the world. If that is restricted, they might as well all close.' Sir Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon, also criticised the prospect of pub goers being prevented from discussing certain topics – arguing earlier this year that it sounded like 'Big Brother thought control'. However, Mr Nowak called the mounting criticism a 'complete and utter red herring' and urged ministers and landlords to stand firm. As well as calling for the pub banter crackdown to go ahead as planned, the union boss also called on businesses not to use Donald Trump's tariffs as an excuse to play 'fast and loose on pay'. He added: 'Hold your nerve to mitigate what's happening on the other side of the Atlantic'. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Rayner ‘must not cave in to Farage over banter crackdown'
Angela Rayner must not cave in to critics such as Nigel Farage over her so-called pub banter crackdown, a union chief has said. Paul Nowak, the head of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), has urged the Deputy Prime Minister to stand firm in her bid to protect workers from third-party harassment, which forms a key part of her Employment Rights Bill. That is despite critics arguing that it will encourage people to 'sue for hurt feelings'. Mr Nowak argued that critics such as Mr Farage, who have attacked Ms Rayner's workers' rights reforms, are just protecting 'their right to be offensive'. While calling on pub landlords to back the Bill, the TUC boss argued that the third-party harassment clause will not mean monitoring conversations. He said: 'I love going to the pub as much as anyone but I don't think that the thought police are going to descend on Britain's pubs.' His comments come after the Government was warned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that proposals forcing employers to protect staff from 'third parties' could apply to 'overheard conversations' among pubgoers. The protections are set to be introduced under Ms Rayner's Employment Rights Bill, which is a keystone of Labour's so-called New Deal for Working People. Concerns over the Bill were also raised in the House of Lords during a second reading last month. Lord Young told peers that he was worried it would 'accelerate the erasure of the good old British pub', while Lord Strathcarron called it an 'Alice in Wonderland' clause that would 'satisfy the whims of the ever-changing, latest version of group think'. Mr Farage has previously raised similar fears by claiming that 'every pub is a parliament'. He said: 'It is where we discuss the world. If that is restricted, they might as well all close.' Sir Tim Martin, the founder and chairman of JD Wetherspoon, also criticised the prospect of pub goers being prevented from discussing certain topics – arguing earlier this year that it sounded like 'Big Brother thought control'. However, Mr Nowak called the mounting criticism a 'complete and utter red herring' and urged ministers and landlords to stand firm. As well as calling for the pub banter crackdown to go ahead as planned, the union boss also called on businesses not to use Donald Trump's tariffs as an excuse to play 'fast and loose on pay'. He added: 'Hold your nerve to mitigate what's happening on the other side of the Atlantic'.
